Gene's Blog

Faith at work

Okay I am not even going to try to guess at the synchronicity of this. After I wrote the first post, I moved on to check my mail and found this. Draw your own conclusions. But I will say – the after does not have to have anything to do with the now. A young friend of mine has reminded me of this from time to time, that though my glimpse into what is “not” here, is important, it also important to remember that while we are here, what we do, and don’t, matters. I will no longer deny her the truth of that statement. So, with love from Steve Goodier:

FAITH AT WORK

It’s one thing to goof. But it’s another thing to do it in front of a
stadium full of people! In their book Oops (The Rutledge Press, 1981),
authors Richard Smith and Edward Decter tell of such slip-ups. One
occurred during a soccer match between two Brazilian teams. (To
protect the player involved, I won’t name the teams.) The first goal
was scored within three seconds after kickoff. What made the score
particularly hard for the team’s fans to take was the fact that it was
made while their goalie was still on one knee with head bowed in
prayer.

There is certainly a time for prayer, but this poor man learned the
hard way that there is also a time for action. In fact, both are
necessary in a well-lived life. As Gandhi once said, “I have so much
to accomplish today, I will have to meditate two hours instead of
one.”

Often, however, the best spirituality begins with the prayer of the
heart, and then moves to that prayer which is lived throughout the
rest of the day.

Several years ago a bomb was detonated outside the huge oak doors of a
Greek Catholic church in Jerusalem. The heavy doors were blown inward
so that they careened up to the front of the sanctuary and destroyed
the chancel area. Windows were blown out, pews were destroyed, and the
balcony collapsed.

Dr. Ken Bailey, a Presbyterian missionary scholar and friend of the
priest of the Greek Church, stopped by to assess the damage. It took
little time to determine that the priest was in shock and unable to
make necessary decisions. So Dr. Bailey took it upon himself to ask
seminary administrators at the school where he taught to close
classes, and he invited students to join him in helping the priest.
They cleaned the church and boarded the windows to prevent looting.

The next day, Bailey again called on his friend. The maid confided in
him that the priest did not cry at the bomb’s destruction. However,
she added, “He did cry when you and your friends helped clean up the
mess it made.”

Dr. Bailey has since remarked, “I did not teach any theology that
afternoon – or did I?” If theology is about love in action, he held
one of his best classes that day.

The truth is…faith is never so beautiful as when it has its working
clothes on.

And that is the truth. Faith is wonderful, it is something to hold on to, it can prove to us, through our own individual experiences that there is a truth out “there” larger than ourselves, but I am not sure that here, wearing these human skins, it ever gets much richer than this story. much love, :^) gene

If today brings even one choice your way
choose to be a bringer of the light :^) gene